92 Before the Bobbies
Agencies already suggested, .. that Crimes are, in any degree, to be pre-
vented or kept in check. 56
Colquhoun's plan proved too drastic and too far removed from the problems
that local authorities faced during the long war to gain much support.
The war with France combined with rising population and prices to create
new burdens for parishes, primarily financial ones. It became difficult for
some parishes to maintain the improved watch systems described in the
previous chapter. London's population was booming; by 1800, the Bills of
Mortality showed more births than deaths for the first time.^57 London
continued to be a magnet for emigrants as well, attracting the young, adven-
turous, and desperate from the surrounding countryside and overseas. 58 The
metropolis expanded on all sides although the areas of most rapid growth
were either the newly built up suburbs to the north, like St Pancras, or the
increasin~ overcrowded parishes that housed the labouring poor in the
East End.^9 By 1811, metropolitan London was home for more than a
million people^60 Feeding the metropolis was hard when the harvests fell
short in 1795-96, 1800--01, and 1810-13 and prices for bread rose to new
heights.^61 London witnessed the rare spectacle of bread riots in 1795 and
- Food prices had decreased by 1803 but a generalized inflation had
continued all through the war years.^62
These two trends, the rising population and inflation, placed increasing
financial burdens on most parochial authorities. In the increasingly crowded
parishes, like St Giles or Bethnal Green, property values suffered and so did
local tax revenues because poor and watch rates were levied on property
values. This occurred at a time when there were more calls on parish funds,
especially for poor relief. In the united parishes of St Giles and St George,
Bloomsbury, the poor rate was at 18 pence on the pound in 1794. By June
1801, the vestry had to raise it to 4s.6d.^63
Inflation and war put pressure on the wages of watchmen. The watch
trustees for St Luke, Old Street, agreed to grant watchmen an additional
1s.6d. per week for the winter of 1795-96, 'in consideration of the present
high price of the necessaries of Ufe'.^64 Real wages for London workers
suffered their sharpest decline between 1790 and 1800. At their lowest level
by the tum of the century, they would not return to levels enjoyed in the 1740s
and 1750s until the mid-nineteenth century.^65 There is limited evidence that
night watch wage scales were also increased because of a shortage of suitable
candidates caused by the manpower demands of the military which competed
with watch authorities for men.^66 In St Marylebone, there is an 1817 reference
to the fact that the vestry had been paying reserve watchmen 3d. more per night
than regular watchmen, 'being an arrangement made during the late war when
Men were scarce'.^67 Many parishes were thus forced to pay higher wages to
keep up with inflation and retain their men.
